Scott has been anxiously waiting all holidays for pictures of my next backyard adventure, so here they are.

I spent a number of days shoveling soil and rock in 40° heat. Just so we could “finish” our backyard in time for New Years Eve. So in summary …

We started here:

And ended up here:

and here …

A job well done by all if I say so myself!

I finally got around to finishing up our paving on the weekend. What a task - much harder than I initially expected it to be but our yard is all the better for it.

Getting everything nice and square and level was definitely the tougher part of the gig. Plenty of detail work involved in that part.

Unfortunately though, it’s shown up a few other things I need to now get done. Have to get the garden bed in, raise the washing line (’cos I keep head butting it) and build in one more step on the drop into the garage.

Here’s another shot from the other side:

Yes, I started another project today. BUT, I finished it too. Well as much as you can finish a garden bed.

After having constructed our deck, we always intended to plant a little garden bed along the end fence-line. Today, I finally got around to doing it. After a drive down to Arthur’s Seat to visit AustPlant, a native nursery near home, a arrived home a little poorer but ready to get stuck into it.

The image shows what it looked like to start with.

I purchased two Pandorea Lady Di climbers and a few Canostylis candicans (Grey Cottonheads) for ground cover.

Of course, it’s never quite that simple, there was some Osmocote stuff (plant food I think), wire, garden ties, etc.

After a bit of measuring and mathematics, I got stuck into the digging, putting in a little plant food for lunch and popping the plants into their new homes. All in all, a pretty easy job and quite rewarding.

I spent the rest of the afternoon stringing up wire so we can guide the climbers and doing some other work on the other side of the garden (with the yet to be completed paving). Will be interesting to see how quickly these things grow. Will post some more photographs in a few months once it’s all established.

Before I got further into finishing my coffee table, I did the typical male thing and started another project. In fact, I started another bigger project.

We’ve been thinking of paving the remainder of our yard, so before summer hit, I thought I’d better get a head start on it. Not knowing anything about paving, I looked to my oracle to help.

A bit of research, some measuring, a few trips to Bunnings for parts (and a sausage), and it’s finally taking shape. The most difficult part was getting the sub-base nice and even. Way difficult when you have a very uneven soil level to begin with.

Compacting the sub-base with a plate compactor made for a few headaches. After a trip back to Kennards and a new spark plug we were back on track. The more I compacted, the more I realised things were quite even. More shoveling rock, more compacting, more leveling.

The end result is pretty good so far. Next week, I’ll be adding the sand, leveling it all up perfectly and then adding the pavers. I’m not good with patience, so the next stage will be quite a test.

No construction work today. Instead we drove around picking up timber for the actual decking.

We visited two places, the first in Dandenong, the second in Hastings. Neither are really places you would go to for the scenery, although the drive through to Hastings is very picturesque.

At Dandenong Demolitions, they had heaps of seconds and cheaper grade wood. This was fine for us, as long as the beams were straight we could sand down the tops and polish it up nicely. At $4.50 per lineal metre, this was pretty darned cheap. I soon realised why. Many of the planks were rubbish.

We did all the sorting ourselves and managed to find 16 pieces of pretty decent timber. We needed 34 pieces. The entire time we spent collecting, a little fat man stood and watched. His overalls didn’t quite fit as he had to keep all the buttons open. Thank god he wore a t-shirt underneath. Thank god again that he managed to get them at least above his groinal region.

“I’d better hang around and guard these guys before they try to run off with mi wood.” I was sure that was what he was thinking. Perhaps because he probably stole this wood from someone else. He was very slack, didn’t lend a hand at all, no receipt and not even a thanks. Perhaps this is the way timber yards are run. Perhaps it’s just Dandenong.

After dropping that load off home, we travelled through to Hastings to Everest Timber. At $6.90 per lineal metre, this place was certainly a little pricier. I suddenly realised why. They were awesome!

We drove up to the office and asked for what we were after. They directed us to the exact location on the property and told us the best way to park to make things easier. We when got there, I started looking through the timber on the scaffold to begin sorting out the good pieces.

Suddenly, this little guy, who wasn’t wearing overalls, scurried towards us in a forklift. He made the forklift dance as he picked up the timber, backed up, raised it high above the scaffold, peformed a beautiful pirouette then curved around to the side of our trailor. This was done in one perfect motion. He would’ve taken 1st place in the “Forklift Liturgical Dance-Off”. It’s true, see the Forklift Ballet and YouTube.
I’d happilly pay $2.40 per metre extra for that kind of service. The timber was pretty spot on too.

Yesterday and today was spent bent down aligning & sawing, drilling & nailing, drilling & screwing. Finally, all the bearers are done.

The ground has quite a slope on it (”fall” for you builder types out there). Working in the area where the ground is lower was much easier. Far more room to lay down and get the circular saw into position to trim down the stumps. Once the ground go higher and closer to the top of the decking, I found the work much more straining. It’s very difficult to keep bent whilst your knees are up around your chest height.

I think all the noise has upset our strange neighbour. She had her door open last night with the television blasting. She also played “You drive me crazy” twice at maximum volume. Suffice to say, I got up early this morning and proceeded with my noisy work. Let’s see who gets driven crazy first!

A bit of lighter work this afternoon moving the soil around. Tomorrow we’ll go to pick up the decking boards and start measuring and lining them all up. I don’t think we’ll be finished by the time my leave runs out, but at least we’ll have made a huge dint in the project (and the water pipe).

Ahh, now about the escape … we’ve been keeping the garage door open as it makes it easier to move things in and out of the trailor. I have an old wire door which I keep along the back of the garage opening. This stops Stanley from running out onto the street.

Today, as I do every day, I slid open the door to get into the garage and didn’t worry too much about Stanley. He’s been pretty well behaved and hasn’t tried to get anywhere near it. I tell him “back” and to “stay” and he sits there until I’m through. Today however, he had different plans. Before I could slide the door behind me, he had bolted. He had a quick snif around and then ran down the driveway.

I think he’s been planning this all along, luring me into a false sense of security. I chased after him, pulled a muscle in my back and thankfully manage to catch him. He must’ve caught an interesting scent on the nature strip (!) and stoped to soak up the perfume. I grabbed him and took him back inside.

Now that he’s tasted a little more freedom, who knows what he’s planning for next.

We commenced work on the deck again today. Nothing too spectacular so this will probably be a very short post.

First we made some measurements and went down to the timber yard to pick up some, ahh, yeah, you know, wood. This lot of wood will form the next layer of the deck - the bearers. They span the length of the stumps in rows and you would usually place joists on top of them. Since this is quite a low deck, we’re going to place the decking timber right onto the bearers so we have placed them extra close together.

After attaching one to the house (pictured), we worked close to the ground sawing off the top of the stumps. This was pretty tricky work trying to get them all perfectly level. I found it especially challenging to use a circular saw whilst lying on the ground. Starting to get the hang of it though.

Tomorrow, I’ll continue with the same work and probably through to Wednesday as well.

We selected the decking we want to use. Instead of going with the traditional Merbau or narrow Treated Pine planks, we’re going with a much more solid and wider board (pictured below.) I think it’ll give the yard a nice big look. It’ll certainly help the deck stand out amongst other ordinary style decks.

Despite the spattering of rain, I was intent on finishing all the stumps. This meant I had to go and fetch another cyprus post and a few more bags of quick set cement. I took the day relatively easily with plenty of breaks. I needed it to ensure my back and neck kept working for me.

During these pondering moments I began working out the lights we needed to light up the deck at night. I didn’t want anything overly bright, and lights which only focused on the garden beds would be just as annoying.

Another factor to consider was the power consumption. If we could use solar powered lights (like the Irish do), then that would be ideal. Unfortunately, through my research, I found that there are very few which are useful. I think in the end we’ll use a few low voltage lights to illuminate the general area, and a few solar powered ones as highlights.

A few days of rest coming up until we start leveling off all the stumps and attaching the bearers next week.

After yesterday’s disaster, I was a little nervous to continue. At the same time, I really wanted to achieve something so we set to work early in the morning (not my idea mind you!)

We started by boring the remaining for holes and staying very clear of the water pipes. We dug the holes close to the pipes by hand one of which was literally “by hand.” I used the garden trowell to dig out a 600mm post hole closest to the main supply pipe. I wasn’t going to risk another explosion of fresh drinking water.

Once they were done, J. guided me through lining up the stump and cementing it in. I worked through the rest of the day carefully lining up, leveling and cementing in two rows of stumps, 12 in total. It was tough work on the back yet incredibly rewarding.

There is a great deal of satifaction to be gained by working with your whole body to create something. It’s nothing like writing the perfect piece of software. The feeling is less ethereal and much more basic. I think it’s the fact that you can stand back and actually see what you have built. This type of satisfaction is something which is really lacking in the IT work. Even in web development, there is no way to really experience the work which has gone into creating a site.

I’m really looking forward to getting the bearers on and finally laying down the decking boards. Not because that’s one of the last things to completion, but because I quite enjoy that detail type of work. In some way, the perfection at that level I can relate easily to.

Tomorrow, I will hopefully get the remaining three rows of stumps in, or at least another two.

Disaster strikes, especially when you strike a major water pipe.

I knew this day would be eventful from the moment I got out of bed. As I stood up, the blood rushed out of my head and I blacked out. A few seconds later, I awoke, collected my thoughts and proceeded through my usual morning routine.

This morning, we started boring holes with a post host digger. It was working very very slowly and after a few minutes began spewing oil. We reverted to a shovel until the rental guy came around with a replacement unit which turned out to work like a gem. The soil was full of rock and hardened clay so it was pretty tough work (especially for J. who was running the gear.) We had finished boring 14 holes so were getting into a bit of a groove. We hit one which was a little tougher than the others, so took to it with the crow bar to loosen up the clay.

It wasn’t clay. The water pipe we had “loosened” shot out mud all over the yard. A somewhat frightening and amazing view all at the same time. J. managed to block it up a little. As our decking slowly turned into a swimming pool, we ran frantically around trying to find the stop tap.

Now, before you ask, “did you call Dial-Before-You-Dig” before you dug? I did. On Monday morning. We were meant to get a response within 2 days. They had contacted Telstra, South East Water, United Energy and Origin Energy. Of the four, I assumed Telstra would take 2 weeks to respond. As of this evening, I have only had a response from Telstra. Perhaps they want me to buy some T3 shares?

After being given the run around by South East Water, we finally found the stop tap in the yard of the first unit. There was no top on the tap so we couldn’t close it off. We were waiting for a call from the South East Water “Emergency Plumbing” line. They were taking forever to find a plumber, so I took to the trusty www.yellowpages.com.au and found my own. He was here within the hour.

Mr. Plumber man tightenend the stop tap yet the water kept running. So far we’ve had a non-emergency emergency hotline, and a stop tap which doesn’t stop water. What else could possibly happen today. The plumber was great (Mornington Plumbing Service - Steven Podd) and managed to get South East Water there to replace the stop tap.

The thing which struck us all (including the plumber), was how close to ground level this pipe was. It was around 100mm deep. Apparently the Aussie standards say it must be at least 1 foot (305mm) deep. We would’ve hit it anyway, but I worry about anyone else doing some heavy landscaping work.

A few hours later, a new pipe was in and sealed. We turned up the water, tested it all, and began filling the hole with soil. It was then that J. noticed part of the soil was wet, right around the join. Damn it! The join was leaking. Luckily Steven fixed it up again good and proper.

We’re yet to find out who laid this pipe (it was put there after the original construction apparently). I sure hope they aren’t still working as a plumber.

It would be a good idea to feel that we actually achieved something today so we used up our last bit of energy to get in two corner stumps. Tomorrow should hopefully go a whole lot more smoothly, now that we know where the water pipe is.